UAE | Education
A cool idea: Inspired by nature
Students at Zayed University draw up plans for a green air-cooling system for cars that could help cut the country's carbon emissions
- By Rania Moussly, Staff Reporter
- Published: 00:00 February 5, 2012
- Image Credit: Abdul Rahman/Gulf News
- Watfa Nasser (right) of Zayed University and gradaute employment coordinator Husam Olabi with their proposed nanocool system.
A group of female students from Zayed University (ZU) found their entrepreneurial spirit in a recent Injaz-UAE innovation workshop to realise what could possibly be their first successful business venture.
Watfa Nasser, Fatima Juma and Fawzia Abdullah were inspired by nature to devise a hypothetical environmentally friendly car cooling system.
The idea comes from the reality that people won't stop using cars so at least we can try to minimise the pollution created by them
The Nanocool system proposes to use solar energy to power the cooling system of a car through modern light weight converter technology.
"The idea comes from the reality that people won't stop using cars so at least we can try to minimise the pollution created by them," said Watfa, who studies international relations. "The system was inspired by the way trees work — by absorbing carbon dioxide and sunlight to produce oxygen."
The students presented their idea to ExxonMobil officials at the company's Outlook Forum during the recent Future Energy Summit in Abu Dhabi.
Learning from nature
The Nanocool, modelled on nature, functions on the principle of photosynthesis as it uses solar energy to power an air purifier and extraction pump. The pump absorbs the external hot air, which is then cooled due to the purification process. The cool air is then circulated to cool the car, while the pump then releases the hot air and takes in new air to continue the cooling cycle.
The system is somewhat similar to an existing car air-conditioning system except that it runs on solar energy. The Nanocool system runs independently of the car and is therefore constantly operational, even when the car is switched off, hence reducing the vehicle's emission by consuming less fuel.
"In our region when you get into your car during the summer the first thing a person does is turn on the air-conditioning, which contributes to increasing car pollution," said Watfa. "The Nanocool system has its own battery that allows the car to be cooled to a moderate temperature; so the system is always working and circulating cool air."
Nurturing talent
Injaz-UAE provides entrepreneurship education through experiential learning programmes and opportunities to the UAE youth to gain key skill sets required to become future entrepreneurs.
The three students were given the opportunity to come up with their Nanocool system idea during an intensive one-day workshop held on the ZU Abu Dhabi campus.
"The workshop we organised was part of the career education we deliver to students," said Husam Olabi, graduate employment coordinator at ZU. "Part of our mission is to encourage and educate students about their future careers after graduation and we build on that through such programmes." He added the Injaz-UAE workshop was an opportunity for interested students to explore their entrepreneurial potential.
"The Nanocool system is a new idea which is what establishments like the Khalifa Fund is looking for in order to help improve our society," Fawzia observed.
"Before we came up with this idea, I'd already proposed two business ideas to the Khalifa Fund, which they rejected, and this is why I chose to study business," Fawzia added.
Growth of business
Both Watfa and Fawzia are eager to follow through with the development of the Nanocool system and subsequent growth of a business.
"It's something we're working on long term — figuring out the finances, finding investors, engineers and companies to develop it and obviously improve research to refine the system," said Watfa.
"We are still at the initial stages but it's an important project because it will help improve the earth's environment; this planet is our only home and if we don't care for it we have nowhere else to go."
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